God's Generosity

God’s Generosity

Submitted by Thomas Stidl

         Last Sunday we heard the gospel detailing one aspect of the generosity of God.  God portrayed by the landowner paid the workers who started late in the day toward evening the same amount of pay for those who started early.  Don’t we all wish we had a boss like that?

         Getting back to our gospel, the workers who worked in the early hours can be likened to faithful Catholics who work for the Lord either throughout their entire lives or most of their lives.  I liken the late day workers who were the prodigal sons and daughters who lived apart from the Lord most of their lives.  As death was closing in on them, they went to the market place looking for the Lord.

         Graciously and with no recrimination, the Lord welcomed them and accepted them back to the fold.  Now at the end of the day, everyone received the same pay.  What was that pay?  It is everlasting life in heaven.  In the gospel the early workers were jealous of the late workers.  The early workers forgot that at the end of time crowns would be given for the service that they provided to the Lord.  All that the early workers need do is to wait for the last judgment, and then they will be satisfied.

         What people sometimes forget is that every good deed that we do in life has merits and graces.  When we return to the true fold, even after a life of wrongful living, we receive all those graces and merits.  They just flood your soul.  I am sure that all of us either have or have had relatives who strayed far from the fold.  They returned at the end of their life and will receive the same pay as everyone else, eternal life.  Frankly, I look forward to the day that I will see all my deceased relatives and friends in heaven.  So why be jealous?  Christ’s blood was shed for all humankind.  God sent his only begotten Son into the world so that all may be saved through Him.  Even though the early workers stayed and worked the entire day that does not mean that they were without sin.  All have sinned and fall far short of the glory of God.  We all need God’s blood to wash our robes clean.

         Yes, some of the early workers as well as the late workers must still spend some time in Purgatory.  However there is a remedy for this.  It is the prayer dictated by Jesus to Saint Gertrude that frees 1,000 souls from Purgatory every time that it is said.  Please check my article entitled,  “Purgatory & The Pandemic” for the text of the prayer.  It was published in July 2022.   Please pray for everyone both living and deceased.

         Until next time, Laus Tibi, Christe.  Deo Gratias.  Gloria Tibi Domini.  Praise be to God.  See you in Paradise.